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Pankaj Mishra, CEO, APIS India: Driving growth and expansion

With a mission to make pure and natural products an integral part of everyday life, Mr. Pankaj Mishra is bullish over expanding Apis India's outlets and growing its revenue to more than three-fold in the next five years

BRAND CONNECT
Published: Sep 25, 2020 02:02:04 PM IST
Updated: Sep 25, 2020 03:41:42 PM IST

Pankaj Mishra, CEO, APIS India: Driving growth and expansion
Steering APIS India, a name to reckon with in organised honey trade in the country, to greater heights of glory, Mr. Pankaj Mishra has contributed immensely in revamping and restructuring the brand and put it on high growth trajectory. Today Apis is among top three honey manufacturers with two lakh outlets and this number is growing rapidly on the back of huge demand that the company enjoys in the market.

With its world class in-house facilities for testing lab, APIS India also does the processing and filtration of honey at its state-of-the-art plant, which maintains its maximum nutritional value. APIS India has the capacity to process over 100 tonnes of honey per day. It has a world-class laboratory set up that stringently holds extensive quality control assurances to manufacture products of international standard. All production facilities are aligned to the ISO 22000; 2005 Standards from procurement to processing and till final delivery.

An alumni of the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, Mr. Mishra’s specialities lies in business and strategic planning, financial planning, organisation restructuring, risk management as well as creating sustainable business model for diversification. All these abilities of Mr. Mishra have helped him in fuelling the growth and expansion of Apis India.

A charismatic leader Mr. Mishra says, “My journey at APIS India has been great, but challenging and I have really worked hard in building and restructuring the brand. In my initial days, it was really tough to scale up as networking was not common.” He further says that the future of this industry is extremely bright, as the very product is associated with what we all want “Healthy and Happy” lifestyle.

A top seeded business strategist, he says that digital is the key and henceforth it will be crucial in the company’s upcoming strategies, along with other offline activities. The recent period of nationwide lockdown has paved the way for the increasing use of digital strategy. “Lockdown has been a curse for all, but fortunately our industry survived, In fact we experienced a revenue boost by 60%,” he informs, adding that it was the time when people were making nutritious home-made dishes to strengthen their immunity, and Apis was their partner.

Apis India also produces specialized honey, which comprises ginger, lemon, organic, honey with nuts, and honey with comb. Its honey range boasts several USPs which altogether give it a distinct competitive edge over its counterparts. Affordably priced and high quality products of Apis India have been benchmarked to meet all European Union and other international standards.  Ethically sourced from bee keepers, Apis India honey reaches from farm to table using GPS technology and it remains untouched by human hands even when it passes through multilevel quality checks. Such purity levels make the product range proven to provide a number of health benefits. 

Over the years, Apis India has also forayed into several other products like tea, cookies, pickles, jam, dates & preserves. This step was taken considering the changing purchase dynamics and growing need of the quality branded packaged products. Thanks to the forward-looking and growth-oriented approach of Mr. Mishra and his team, the company has gained commendable success in all its product categories.

Apis India has also got the famed ORGANIC, TUV, USFDA, KOSHER, EIC, APEDA, FMCG certification and it’s also ISO 22000 certified by Intertek, which is a documented procedure that applies to Food Safety Management System framed by the international body. The company is also amongst the forerunners in honey exports from India to the EU, USA and the Middle East. All its operations are fully automatic with a well-designed, closed-circuit honey processing line with a manual interface, ensuring quality and hygiene throughout, in keeping with international norms. The company’s processing set up meets all European Union standards with a capacity to process 100 tonnes per day with a homogenization capacity of 120 MT's and filtration capability up to 5 microns at each of its three factories. With a capacity to hold 5000 MTs of honey in a controlled climatic conditions, Apis India annually deals in 12000 Mts with an annual growth of 30%.

As inspiring captain of the company Mr. Mishra believes in maintaining the company’s culture while it’s growing leaps and bounds. He says “The company’s culture is very important from understanding each employee to making them understand what the company aims at. If the culture is a good fit, we all tend to develop better relationships with co-workers and be more productive.”

He adds, “We offer flexibility in working hours, bring and introduce better technologies that give an ease of working to the people. In order to build cordial relationship with each other, meetings and other get togethers are timely conducted.” Under his astute leadership, Apis India has also announced its proud association with team Rajasthan Royals for IPL 2020. He says, “Through this partnership with Rajasthan Royals and their presence in the IPL, Apis aims to further accentuate its stand for a health-driven lifestyle, impacting lives positively and disseminating the importance of healthy living.”

He quips, “One of the best products we can consume for good health is honey which has proven health and medicinal benefits. The importance of honey is once again in limelight as an effective natural therapy that is capable of reducing acute inflammation through encouraging immune response. Several studies have proved its potential healing capability against numerous chronic diseases/conditions.”

For all the budding entrepreneurs, Mr. Mishra gives the million dollar advice, “to be fearless, follow your passion and don’t lose your self-identity.” Under his astute leadership, APIS India has won numerous awards and recognitions. The company has been awarded Promising Brand of the Year 2019. Apis India has also won certificate of excellence at Times Business Awards 2019 while Mr. Mishra received the esteemed emerging FMCG brand award. Mr. Mishra looks forward to grow Apis India into a mammoth company encompassing eight lakh outlets with its revenue increasing three-folds to the tune of more than Rs 600 crore.

To know More: www.apisindia.com

Disclaimer: The views, suggestions and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Forbes India journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.

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